Chevy Volt pre-production line in Detroit. 230 MPG?

Ok, this was pretty cool. With the group that I went along with yesterday we got to go through the Chevy Volt in pre-production ... guys wearing suits and earpieces told us no camera or other recording devices, and those that had cell phones with camera had to be tagged.

The car has changed it's look quite significantly, and I guess it was announced this morning what the finished volt would look like and they're "hinting" that it would get 230 MPG (withough actually saying 230 MPG). haha, I saw it yesterday. Looks like the www.chevyvolt.com website today is announcing that it will get an estimated 230 MPG for city driving.

While walking through, we met with the executive in charge (no pun intended) of the Chevy Volt and we tried to pin him down on all sorts of questions including how many MPG it would get when running on gas. There is a problem with that as it's a gasoline engine that will generate electricity to power the electric motor ( I guess through the battery). It will not drive the wheels with a transmission and it will not power up the battery. You can drive around town with the electric and when you run out of electricity, you then run on gas as long as you want. Miles, hundreds of miles even.

I tried to pin them down on the size of the gas tank, but they're not releasing that type of inforation yet.

You can also charge it fast on 220 in like 90 minutes or like 8 hours at 110 and the charger is built-in, but you will need a special plug that comes with the vehicle.

Fox had a blurb about it on the news this morning.
Looks interesting, electric drive motors could make it a peppy little car at the low end and top end could be as far out as the battery lasts or the speed limiters go. Electric motors guarantee a flat torque output all the way to wherever they put the speed limiters to.
I'm sure the 230mpg will atract many commuters but the $40K projected price tag will scare away many also.

I'm sure the 230mpg will atract many commuters but the $40K projected price tag will scare away many also.

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Yep. Most of the alternate energy cars, like the Prius don't have a justifiable payback based on purchase costs of $40K. They are more personal choice, save the earth, tree hugger cars. They don't have much better payback value than solar panels.

Based on cost and how long the vehicle will last. I'd like to see how these cars stack up against something like a SmartCar or other dirt cheap imports getting 50+ mpg.

It's good to see they are moving the technology forward. They have a long way to go yet before I buy into it.